France forward Kylian Mbappe, who had ripped apart Argentina in the previous round with his directness and pace, wasted a good opportunity to open the scoring in the 15th minute when Olivier Giroud headed across the box to him but the 19-year-old's looping header was off-target.

Former Middlesbrough striker Cristhian Stuani may get the chance to step out of the shadows for Uruguay should Edinson Cavani fail to recover from a calf problem in time for the game against France. And when I started in the first team, there was another Uruguayan striker, Carlos Bueno.

Griezmann, though, knows Godin and another Atletico teammate, Jose Maria Gimenez, will not give Mbappe the same space to exploit his pace that a disorganized Argentina did. But he is French and he does not know what it means to be Uruguayan. "It was a message of support from a friend and he congratulated me for our advance to the last eight", he said. A Raphael Varane header has put France in front as they take 1-0 lead at the mid-match break. "Apart from that, they didn't have many great opportunities".

50' - Incredibly delivery from Mbappe to nearly find Pogba in the box from a free kick, but Uruguay's Muslera punched it out of harm's way.

Uruguay have conceded just once in winning all seven of their matches in 2018.

A country of only 3.5 million, Uruguay won World Cup titles in 1930 and 1950 and then waned.

The country was trying to reach the semifinals for the second time in the last three World Cups.

Suarez spoke at a press conference after the session and, in quotes reported by goal.com, the Barcelona forward said of Cavani: "The two goals he scored the other day, the team work he has in general, his physical exertion...all of it is important".